[rescue] [webdesign at sun.com: sun.com redesign]

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Fri, 19 Apr 2002, Bill Bradford wrote:

> > 2. Sun embraces Linux
> > 3. Sun announces it's going to start selling PeeCee type servers running 
> > Linux
> 
> They already *do* this.  Cobalt.

I still don't understand that crap.  I was hopeful at first.  I thought
it'd be a mercy killing, just to get that shit off the market.  Maybe Sun
would produce a low-end Netra with Cobalt work-alike[1] software, and just
let the little blue bastards die a quiet death while supporting the poor
idiots who bought them.

Then I really started daydreaming.  Maybe Sun would give those poor BOFHs
trade-up options (you know, to real hardware) and burn the RaQs and Qubes
in a big ol' bonfire.  Hell, invite all the ISPs that got burned by the
reliability issues with the RaQs[2].  They could make a big gala event of
it.  $20 buys you a RaQ, a gallon of kerosene, and a Sun-badged book of
matches.  And there'd be barbecue and beer and women in grass skirts....

But no.  They had to keep building them.

*primal scream and much head banging ensues*

And not only that, but the tech support got -worse-, if that were even
remotely possible.  I mean, this scenario was bad enough:

  Me:  $server just died.  Again.  Fiftyish sites are down, and customers
       are bitching.  And, since you idiots didn't provide for backups, I
       can't just blindly reload the OS, as there's data that needs to
       survive.
Tech:  Well, $droid isn't here today, and he normally supports $server.
       I'll have him call you back next week.
  Me:  Grrr.

But, no, now the scenario went like this:

  Me:  $server just died...
Tech:  We make $server?  Wow.  I thought $company made that.  Oh, I just
       transferred from iPlanet support.
  Me:  Grrr.

I feel about Cobalts probably very similarly as Peter Wargo feels about
SGIs.  Utter shit with no hope of ever justifying their existence in my
eyes, at least, not without ripping out all that crapulous software and
putting *BSD on it.  Even then, the MIPS-based systems are worthless for
anything other than NAS boxes, as they're CPU-anemic.

--Jonathan
[1] Well, "work-alike" without the "let anyone in the world have root
    privileges" and "system files spontaneously combust to prevent
    administrator boredom" features.  Hell, even introducing file locking
    (and, you know, back-porting it to the older devices) would have been
    a damned great idea.
[2] Here's a tidbit.  The original RaQ had -NO- backup provisions.  It
    originally shipped with no SCSI port, and no NFS support.  And don't
    even -think- about recompiling the kernel, as the proprietary hardware
    ensured that all sorts of stuff would break if you enabled it.